Confidence?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
(1 John 5:14 (NIV))

For the last several years I have been asking for what I wanted with no results. Don’t get me wrong. What I was asking for was not something bad or totally wrong. I was just being selfish and focused on my desire to be with my family. Every time that I asked something along these lines, it was a resounding “No!” I don’t know if it was my lack of faith in my situation or if it was simply a pity party of one.

Somewhere along the way, I started to transition my requests to make them more in line with God’s Will. Every time that I started to ask for things in that manner, progress was made, but it was often progress of “two steps forward and one step back.” I would start to ask for my personal will and this would slow down God’s Will.

Does this sound familiar?

We all do it. Perhaps we go through periods like this simply to teach us a lesson in what we ask for. Just as a little child will continually ask for that one toy they are fixated upon, we often ask God for the same thing over and over again without relenting. We only see our immediate desires. We do not see that there is so much more to ask for that we can have if we will only change our focus.

Lately, I have been asking God to give me His WIll as my will. Strange things are happening. I don’t know where His Will is leading me, but I am trying to prepare myself to follow.

Instead of asking repeatedly for the things that God does not want us to have, we need to look for the blessings in His possession that He does want us to have. I can guarantee that those blessings from His Will will far outweigh what we ask for from our will.

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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